RESTORING ROME: ROMAN OXFORDSHIRE COINS DISPLAY
6 Dec 2025 - 29 Nov 2026
Gallery 7
Admission is FREE
Coinage remains one of the best represented and most recognisable elements of Roman material culture.
This display will showcase a selection of Roman coins in the Ashmolean collection that were found in Oxfordshire and tell the story of the region from the Roman conquest in 43 CE to the end of Roman Britain, around 410 CE.
Some of the coins reflect everyday life through trade, soldiers’ pay, or the collection of taxes. Others tell us about Britain’s position in the empire or served as offerings people made to the gods.
Discover a group of Iron Age gold staters buried in a flint nodule around the time of the Roman invasion, known as the Henley Hoard, and various Roman coins from Claudius I to the end of Roman Britain. These historic finds were discovered in local towns and villages, such as Cowley, Dorchester, Asthall, Horton, Shiplake and Childrey, and add to the evidence for coin use and circulation in Roman Oxfordshire.
Map (detail) accompanying the Roman Oxfordshire coins display in the Money Gallery
Roman coins were an important means of communication. They were carried across the empire in purses, spreading images and messages central to Roman society: religion, politics, the Imperial family, or the empire’s prosperity. As with modern money, most Roman coins also had more straightforward messages, showing exactly who held power.
These coins are not always beautiful objects, but each is a small, powerful voice connecting us to the people of Roman Oxfordshire and their place in the wider Roman world.
Header image: Obverse and reverse detail of silver coin of Carausius © Ashmolean Museum
Found anything locally?
Since 1997, the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) has recorded more than 360,000 Roman coins from England and Wales, including nearly 15,000 from Oxfordshire.
If you think you may have found a Roman coin, it’s important to have it properly recorded. Contact your local Finds Liaison Officer at the PAS
